


Her Lead

by Amy Raine (amyraine)



Category: Avatar: Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Romance, Spirits, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-08
Updated: 2011-04-08
Packaged: 2017-10-24 01:41:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/257469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyraine/pseuds/Amy%20Raine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While becoming accustomed to her new existence, Yue discovers that spirits are capable of love, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Lead

**Author's Note:**

> La is depicted as male in this fic, mainly because it represents the masculine yang of the yin yang symbol. However, I have written other fics where it is female. I think the genders of the original spirits are not specified in canon and and fic authors should write whatever fits their story. Experimenting is fun.

Every night, it got harder to remember.

She tried to cling to those memories of being human, of touching, of feeling. But the more time passed, the more difficult it became.

It did not help that she was divided among three worlds. In the spirit world, she was the glowing lady that sailed above the primordial trees. But she was also in the spring, fins instead of hands, a tail instead of feet. And she was also in the sky, the ever changing orb that guided those who walked after the sun slipped out of sight. Faces would look up as she passed above, whispering a quick prayer or merely basking in her light.

One face in particular would turn to her often, when he thought his friends weren't looking.

This part of Yue, keeping watch over the mortal world, frequently occupied the forefront of her consciousness. While she was still aware of the other parts, they stayed on the periphery. The lonely twisted world of alien beings. The infinite watery dance. She did not like to focus her attention on those parts of her for very long. When she did, the memories of her human life began to fade.

Her companion did not seem to care one way or another. Like her, he was in three places too. Unlike her, he touched lots of things. His waves lapped the shoreline. He held creatures in his depths. Children swam in him, as he swam with her in the Oasis.

And there was his other part, too. What he was as a spirit. That part of him defied description. It was a thing of secrets, of cold, of places that sunlight couldn't reach, of the beginning of life and the end of it.

There was much in the Spirit World that she found frightening, but La scared her most of all.

One spring night, not long after her transformation, she sought out Sokka. He was on a cliff above the water, and someone was with him. Yue knew the girl as she knew everyone. Strong, brave, a warrior like him, but someone who also understood what duty meant. Yue watched as he moved in to kiss her, and then turned away.

The human reaction would have been a jumble of emotions. Pain, loss, confusion, regret. Yue knew she should feel these things, she could remember what feeling them was like, but all she had now was the distant echoes of what they were supposed to be.

It's not that she stopped caring. Yue cared very much. As a spirit she had come to realize that caring and compassion were not mere emotions. They were part of who you were.

*Tui?*

It took Yue a moment to register the unfamiliar presence in the back of her consciousness.

 _That's not my name._

*You are Moon,* it said. *I would know you no matter what name you use. Your pull has guided me for millennia.*

 _Oh._ The part of her that was a fish now came to the front. Water flowed through her gills. _You can talk._

*You knew that already.*

Yes, a part of her had known that. _You haven't talked since…_ An image of a red moon appeared in her mind, followed by the face of a man with thick sideburns and hard eyes, fire upon the water, a white fish lying so still…

*I didn't need to.* La's body undulated past her, shiny and black. *But tonight your thoughts were very loud.*

 _I'm sorry I disturbed you._

Something like amusement colored the voice in her mind. *You never disturb me.* The tone changed to one of curiosity. *But you have not thought things like this before.*

Upon becoming the Moon spirit, all of the old Moon spirit's memories had become hers. She could recall events dating back to when she first formed, when there was nothing but her in the heaven above and him covering the world below.

 _That wasn't me though._

 _It was._

 _It wasn't!_

She shifted to the sky. He stretched out below her, a vast expanse that glittered in her light.

 _I miss my old life sometimes._

*What do you miss?*

Yue thought of the sensation of fur on her skin, of the brush of snow on her cheeks, of the smooth wet feel of ice under her fingertips. She thought of her mother's warm hugs, and her father's proud hand on her shoulder.

She thought of Sokka's lips, the last thing she had ever felt.

*Ah.* La swayed and rolled, his waves like arms reaching up. *I see. I cannot give you these things. But if you will permit me to show you something..?*

Yue shifted her awareness to the Spirit World. She looked down to the vaguely human-shaped form that was always below her, watching.

 _Okay, go ahead._

Her mind filled with memories that were familiar, but they weren't hers, and they weren't the former Moon's. They were La's.

The first thing he had ever been aware of was the tug of something on him, a pull that made him open metaphorical eyes – for a spirit, the line between reality and metaphor was so blurry it was almost nonexistent – and look up to see her shining. From that point on she had defined his being. He counted time by the cycle of her changing face. When the people who would become the Water tribes watched him try to reach her across the vast gap between them and copied his motions, he rejoiced because it was an extension of his devotion to her. Becoming mortal had been her suggestion, but he had embraced it without any reservation, because it meant that for the first time, he could be near her. When she had died, his rage shook the waters from Pole to Pole. The being that had formed from his merger with the Avatar had only been a small part of the maelstrom that had swept across the ocean that night.

Yui floated in stunned silence. Finally she gathered her wits enough to think, _That was the other Moon_ _._

*No. She is you. You are her. That human you once were, those memories you brought with you, they are an addition, not a replacement. I love you. I will love you until the world is no more.*

 _I didn't know spirits could love._

A wave crashed upon a rock. The black fish moved a fin. The dark shape gestured to her. *You love.*

 _Yes, but I used to be human._

*So only humans can love?*

 _I'm sorry. I didn't mean that._ In the sky, a cloud passed in front of her. In fish form, she bobbed her head. In the Spirit World, she closed her eyes. _It's just not the same._

*It is all I have.*

The ocean reflected the moon. The black fish followed the white one through crystal clear water. The shadowed figure gazed up at the white haired girl.

Yue had spent her sixteen years of mortal life doing what was expected of her. Following other people's lead. Now, though, the Ocean danced to her lead. His love was a gift offered freely, with no strings.

Maybe it wasn't like human love. But maybe it could be enough.

The moon shone on the water. The white fish followed the black one.

Yue reached out her hand.


End file.
